Friday 5th October

Comma

The weather has moved slowly into the autumn thermocline and more of my time has gone towards doing jobs around the house and garden before the frosts come.

One momentary high spot was the appearance of a comma butterfly that settled on the summer house to take advantage of what sun there was. This was the first time I've seen one in the garden.

Last week Alex was over with Vicki and she and I did a short walk along the Derwent Valley cycle track. The idea was to see a red deer but it was always a long shot. We didn't see that much - a red kite, a few squirrels and long-tailed tits plus a brief flurry of about 20 speckled woods on one of the viaducts.  It gave me a good feeling to see how she enjoyed these minor sightings.

A speckled wood was last sighted over the garden on 2nd October and it is possible that they will go on for a couple of weeks yet. The late specimens are small and look fresh, obvious results of a second brood. I was reading that they have increased spectacularly in both population and distribution over the past few years, though not this one as the Big Butterfly Count is actually showing a fall in numbers, along with several other species.

Whilst painting the shed and partly obscured from the bird feeders, I got some good close of views of long-tailed tits landing next to them. they eyed me over a bit but eventually departed without risking it.